Specialized-lululemon put on a stunning display of aggressive, tactical racing at the Merco Cycling Classic criterium, netting the stage victory for Ina Teutenberg. The German champion triumphed in the sprint ahead of Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies duo Joelle Numainville, the race's best young rider, and Leah Kirchman, the Canadian criterium champion.

"It's a long straightaway and wide roads, so the team did a good job of getting me to the front," Teutenberg said of her final lap. "I followed the Exergy train because they did a good job of lining it out. I went early out of the last corner because they hesitated a little bit, and I was afraid of getting swamped."

Despite a late charge from the Optum duo, Teutenberg held onto a wheel's advantage at the line, and was pleased with the day's efforts.

"This is a race to try and get fitness, and if you just sit in it's not going to happen. We tried to make it aggressive, and Optum too, so there was always a break up front. Exergy did a good job controlling it, but you have to give it a go."

It was the first mass-start race of the year for the new Optum Pro Cycling women's team, and Numainville was pleased with the finish which helped move her up in the overall standings.

"Ina is one of the best in the world, so I'm pretty pleased with myself. I needed a couple more meters," said Numainville. "She had the plan, and I was a little bit far back in the corner. I knew I had to be patient with such a long straightaway."

"Our team strategy was to show in our first race that we're going to be aggressive and we're strong," said Kirchman. "We decided that I would stay with Joelle and lead the sprint, but Ina got the jump on us. Joelle was making up ground ... but it was good we could finish second and third. For our first race as a team to work so well together is really great."

With the three-day race run on points, and the even weighting of those points toward the overall classification, Team Exergy-Twenty12's Kristin Armstrong only came into the stage with a one point lead over Specialized-lululemon's Clara Hughes, despite putting nearly a minute into the Canadian in the opening stage time trial.

The close standings and the early season, low-key nature of the race served to make the criterium so fast and attack-laden that by the third lap groups of riders had already been shelled out the back.Huffman

Hughes herself attacked several times, but the Exergy team had the race under control, putting riders into moves but always patrolling the front for dangerous moves.

The final break of the day was marked by both Swiss champion Pascale Schnider and Kristin McGrath of Exergy, along with Numainville, Olivia Dillon (Now & Novartis) and Lauren Rowney (Specialized-lululemon). But with Rowney as passenger and Lauren Tamayo back in the field keeping the gap down for Exergy, the move was doomed and came back with 3 to go.

Third overall Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-lululemon) came to the front at the start of the final lap to start the lead-out, while Armstrong remained in the top three behind her teammates. Teutenberg got the jump out of the final turn and powered down the 300m stretch to claim yet another victory to add to her long palmares.

Bevin back in lead with stage win

Bissell's Patrick Bevin regained the lead of the men's stage race with a victory in the criterium's bunch sprint. The New Zealander out-sprinted Optum Pro Cycling's Ken Hanson and Logan Loader (Team Exergy).

It's the second stage victory for Bevin, who won the opening road race over his teammate Eric Young and Loader, but then lost the yellow jersey by two seconds in the stage 2 time trial.

Bevin said his team's hard work driving the last 15 laps of the race put pressure on him to perform and re-take the race lead, but that it was satisfying to be able to pull it off.

"We had a lot of horsepower and it made my day very easy. Coming into the finish knowing your team has done 15 miles on the front, with half a lap to go you know it's your time to go to work. We got bounced around a bit, but the guys dropped me off in a great position with half a lap to go. It's very satisfying to come out on top after the team worked so hard."

The leader of the race at the start of the day, Evan Huffman (California Giant Berry), was caught behind a split caused by a crash in the last five laps, and lost enough time to tumble out of the top of the standings, despite his young team controlling the first half of the race admirably.

Anthony Gallino, the California Giant Berry manager said the team and Huffman were disappointed, but said it was a great learning experience. "We just came out of training camp, and this was great practice for the bigger races. We did some really good things today, but then obviously we did some not so good things. When the big guys came around we kind of disintegrated. But they're learning."

Bissell took over control of the race from Cal Giant with 15 laps to go, reeling in the last of the breakaway attempts from amateur teams, in particular Mike's Bikes rider Tyler Brandt, who went on several forays off the front and was the final escapee along with Diego Yepez (PCC p/b Pure Gear).

While the team of Bevin prevented any further attacks in the latter part of the race with a well-drilled lead-out train, Optum Pro Cycling fought to pull itself into contention, only managing to hit the front with Mike Friedman with three laps to go.

"It got pretty chaotic toward the end," said runner-up Hanson. "We didn't get our order set like we wanted to, but Friedman took off with about three laps to go and kept the pace high because it started to slow down a little. Then we got organised, and we had me, Friedman, Candelario and Creed up there.

"But we had Candelario in position sooner than we wanted, and he took it from so long that I got a little impatient, I went around about 50 meters before I should have and I didn't have the legs to go the full 250m at speed. I could have been more patient, but it's the first time we're doing the lead-out with the guys and it's a learning curve. We're getting closer. Hopefully tomorrow if it comes down to a sprint we're pretty confident we can take it if we get our guys lined up right."

For Loader, another third place finish was a frustration, but it shows that he is worthy of having a rider of the caliber of Fred Rodriguez as his lead-out man.

"I had a great team behind me, always keeping me at the front and out of the wind. But there are three teams, Bissell, Optum and us and all want no less than the stage win. Coming in with a lap to go, we were sitting back letting Bissell and Optum battle it out, I had Freddie Rodriguez leading me. We kind of got swarmed a little, overall I think we rode a great race. It's our first race as a team together, so all together we're doing fine.

"I remember being a kid watching Fred on TV leading out Robbie McEwen, He's got such amazing palmares, and now he's leading me out. It's a great opportunity, but he's a great friend and mentor, and there's no cockiness there."

Tomorrow's 120 mile road race will be a true early season test of endurance and fitness as the men battle for the handful of seconds that separate them.